Burns: Loeb's the favourite for the title

However, Burns is not giving up on his chances of retaining the title, and insists that his poor showing in Italy is not indicative of what he is capable of on asphalt.

"With two tarmac rallies coming up, Sebastien is the favourite," Burns told Motorsport News. "Although we still have a two-point lead in the championship, we will be going to Corsica on the back foot a little bit.

"I don't think Sanremo was representative of what we can do, but if it is representative of what Seb can do, we're going to struggle," he continued. "However, that doesn't mean to say we are going to give up trying."

Burns, who holds a two-point lead over Loeb in the title race, described the Sanremo Rally as the worst of his career, after completing some stages of the Italian event more than a minute slower than the Frenchman. However, Burns was more comfortable on some of Sanremo's more open, less twisty stages and that gives him some confidence for the tarmac rounds ahead.

"We did have a couple of stages in the rally where things were working better," he explained. "My aim now is to start the next rally at a good speed and not have to build up to it. If that enables me to be at the speed of [team-mates] Marcus [Gronholm] and Gilles [Panizzi], I think that would be good."